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Linux on Nintendo DS, Update

Posted by timothy on from the make-ready-the-whine-cannon dept.

fdevliegher writes "Trying to port Linux to various portable devices is hot nowadays. One project is porting Linux to the Nintendo DS, and is making big progress lately. Right after the DSLinux guys had a working bootable 2.6 kernel, they have put lots of effort in making the sash shell work, in which they also succeeded. The latest feature added is the touchscreen keyboard. It allows users to tap in the commands, providing a much easier input method than before (when only the buttons could be used to input text). Only the basics are being worked on for now, but the future uses of Linux on the Nintendo DS are practically unlimited. In other words, it might become a cheap alternative for a PDA, an emulator, movie viewer, maybe even internet browser, who knows."

28 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Next Up- by jmkgh · · Score: 3, Funny

    Linux for NES

    --
    ...thus spoke the waffle. and thus it was so.
    1. Re:Next Up- by bhtooefr · · Score: 2, Informative

      You would recompile it for the processor.

      Often, new libraries have to be written for weird devices like this, because there isn't support for things like the graphics chip, the touchscreen, the wireless, etc.

      Linux on the NES is infeasible because there isn't NEAR enough RAM, for starters. Also, the CPU is 8-bits - I don't know of any Linux variant that runs on less than a 32-bit CPU (except for ELKS, but that's getting a bit far away from Linux).

  2. Yup. by rackhamh · · Score: 5, Funny

    Trying to port Linux to various portable devices is hot nowadays.

    So hot. You should see the look on my girlfriend's face when I tell her, "Time to compile the kernel on this bad boy."

    Gets 'em every time, baby.

    1. Re:Yup. by ZosX · · Score: 3, Funny

      My girl is just impressed with my mounting skills.

      It's her favorite part.

      --
      zosxavius photography
    2. Re:Yup. by Thuktun · · Score: 3, Funny

      My girl is just impressed with my mounting skills. It's her favorite part.

      "Mount and fsck me, baby!"

    3. Re:Yup. by stoborrobots · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you mount before you fsck her wouldn't you run the risk of screwing her up?

      It's true that if you mount without protection while fscking, you are vulnerable to bloating the system, and causing instability - poentially screwing everything up...

      That's why, if you're going to do that - use protection! If you mount her read-only you can be sure that you won't leave anything behind in the filesystem... Then you can fsck safely...

      --
      "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  3. Graffiti-Style Input? by adavies42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How about text recognition as an input method? I can do Palm Graffiti fine with my finger, so it should be eminently doable on a DS. Are there any similar open source projects out there?

    --
    Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
    -kfg
    1. Re:Graffiti-Style Input? by AuMatar · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because you love annoying everyone around you by talking to your damn PDA? Or because you love giving anyone nearby buisness data and contact information of all your friends?

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  4. What are the real uses? by OutOfMemory · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This post mentioned several possible uses for linux on the DS, but what real uses are there? This is a neat trick, but only demonstrates what everyone already knows, the linux kernel is small. I would like to see one of these projects produce something that is actually usefull as something other than an academic exercise.

    1. Re:What are the real uses? by stanthegoomba · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The DS happens to have a good formfactor and the right capabilities (wireless, stereo sound, TOUCHSCREEN) to make a great multimedia or general purpose PDA for less money than most Pocket PCs or Palms. The DS equipped with Linux, a decent DE, and some 3rd party support would be a very usable mobile computer, with better gaming capabilities than any PDA out there since it would be able to also boot DS games.

    2. Re:What are the real uses? by toddestan · · Score: 2, Funny

      What has linux on the xbox turned into?

      This.

    3. Re:What are the real uses? by m50d · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Like they said, as a PDA. Compare the price of a DS and iPaq

      --
      I am trolling
  5. The two things I want by Dark+Paladin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A PDA I think would be great - the hard part would be letting me sync it to iCal or something, but that would be excellent for me.

    The other would be a Game Boy Color emulator. Yes, I know that the DS can play Game Boy Advance games, but there's still 4 Game Boy games I haven't finished yet (two Zelda games, "Dragon Warrior III" (almost done), and "Metal Gear Solid GBC"). I just want to have the ability to play them all on one device, and then I won't have to keep the GBA SP around all the time.

    Not sure if it can do the latter - the processor might not be powerful enough for emulating the GBC, but the datebook might be good.

    It makes me wonder why Palm hasn't tried to sell a Palm OS cartridge - I know I'd buy one, and even if it was Palm Light (let you sync up, maybe enter some things, but no major app support) it would almost be worth $50 - $60.

    Just my opinion, of course. Congrats to the Linux on DS team, either way!

    --
    52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
    1. Re:The two things I want by falcon5768 · · Score: 2, Informative
      actually if your careful, and into taking things apart (and you know voiding it and stuff) you can solder something on the board that will let it play the older games.

      The first generations still have the chips that allow backwards compatability to original GB titles like the GBA has, it was just never put in. Odds are the future chips wont even have this ability, but for now if you find the instruction via google, you can hack your system so that emulation of the older gameboy isnt even needed.

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

  6. feel free to say i'm wrong by scenestar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Having a stable linux distribution running on portable handheld console could very well mean the difference between high sales or a a total failure.

    with the psp linux project, the gadget has had a huge amount of added features aincluding the ability to emulate other platforms (famicon/snes/gameboy).

    The nintendo ds isnt very exciting or sexy as a handheld. The added feature of various linux hacks (eg a media player) could very well make the ds a more attractive toy.

    --
    perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
    1. Re:feel free to say i'm wrong by snuf23 · · Score: 4, Informative

      OK, so the PSP currently has homebrew apps running on either the 1.0 bios or through a swap exploit on 1.5 bios - but not on the currently shipping bios. The emulation scene is in a very early state for those that can actually run the software. PSP Linux has hardly any progress.
      Now you probably don't know about emulation, homebrew, movie playback etc. on the Gameboy Advance or Gameboy. It does exist in a considerably more advanced state than on the PSP. The main difference is that in order to take advantage of it, you need a flash memory cart for the GBA or DS. A good example is the Super Card which allows you to plug a compact flash card into the DS. It also plays GB, NES, PCEngine and Sega GameGear games out of the box. It has both movie and music playback features as well and supports homebrew GBA apps. There are other cards available that will allow you to play DS bootleg or homebrew games as well.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    2. Re:feel free to say i'm wrong by Bigthecat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yep, sorry, you are wrong. The gaming scene has far more users than Linux on computer, and the difference between getting a handheld or not to the average Joe isn't whether it can run a version of Linux or not. It may make it slightly more attractive for some, but saying that it would be the difference between 'high sales' and 'total failure', when the DS has already sold millions and millions without this so far, is ludicrous.

      Even on home consoles, mod-chip users are in the vast minority. Although a console's moddability has infact driven a small portion of the sales in the past (Such as with the Dreamcast), the average Joe whose friend installs it for him isn't doing it for a 'stable Linux distribution', he's doing it for the pirated games.

    3. Re:feel free to say i'm wrong by Zarian · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You're kidding right?

      Please explain then why the DS is currently killing the psp in japan right now.

      I'll tell you the reason. A must have game!(nintendogs)
      Not Linux, not bsd, not emulation.

      The average consumer hasn't even heard of linux.

  7. Re:but the DS screen by Yosho · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, since it has two screens, it has 28% more pixels than a 320x240 screen.

    --
    Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
  8. IBM SHARK/ATOMIK by pkhuong · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Big Blue has spent R&D money thinking about this for us :)

    http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/atomik is a layout for tapping. I used it on my m105, and it's pretty good. Definitely better than graffiti if you're standing still and don,t haveto pay attention to your surroundings, and somewhat better than qwerty or alphabetic (I used paper overlays on the graffiti area).

    http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/sharktext uses the same layout in an ingenious way, where you trace a line between the letters of the word. You quickly remember the shape of frequent words, and it works surprisingly well (I'm using the java demo almost as often as the built-in TIP on my tablet PC).

    --
    Try Corewar @ www.koth.org - rec.games.corewar
  9. Re:I don't know... by 0racle · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it computes it could run Linux
    If it computes it does run NetBSD. (of course)

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  10. That was a cruel hoax by swerk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Don't take it seriously, unless you don't mind having a busted DS.

    I wanted to believe it too. But no, the DS hasn't got GBC-compatible hardware. Emulation is probaby on the way though. Hell, if the Linux development gets far along enough that SDL can be ported, GnuBoy would run! (Who knows at what speed, but still... :^)

  11. Will this effect normal DS gameplay?? by techmedic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have not looked at the site yet...but im wondering. Will this effect normal DS gaming on the unit. Pardon me for my stupidity :)

  12. Nethack by lazarus · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Nintendo DS is the perfect platform for playing Nethack. It's dual screen means that all of the various nethack commands and options can be put on the bottom touch screen (perhaps even stats), while the top can be left exclusivly for the game display. That it is a portable platform means that you can play Nethack anywhere (important to the millions additcted to the game...)

    I understand that simply having Linux on the DS doesn't mean Nethack would be trivial to port, but it is a step in the right direction IMHO. I'm holding my breath.

    --
    I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
  13. Nintendo Already licensed Palm OS by marcybots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With how powerful the Nintendo DS hardware is compared to the original (and still useful) old Palm pilots I am not surprised it could be a PDA, but it seems Nintendo already thought of that.

    Nintendo had recently licensed Palm OS based PDA software without any details on why they had done it. Nintendo sources have now revealed that the V-Pocket patent filed by Nintendo a few days ago concerns this licensing. E3 2005 will be the first witness of the Nintendo V-Pocket suite: a complete line of personal organizer tools for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo believes PDA software coupled with the already existing touch screen of the DS will put it above its high profiled rival, the PSP.

  14. I think its cool by dr_leviathan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think Linux on the DS is cool. I can think of a few neat applications and I'm sure the creative hackers out there can think up some fun projects for LinuxDS.

    There is a company called Charmed Labs that makes a programmable robot cartridge for the old GBA. They're probably working on a similar add on for the DS right now. But with Linux on the DS you don't even need to robot cartridge to have fun, or you could probably by the cartridge for extras like easily accessible ADC/DAC lines. You could make a little hand-held oscilliscope or something.

    GBA's were being used as information accessories for some car races. The cartridges that you could rent had wireless units that would get realtime info from the race.

    Someone else was using GBA's as little hand-held real-time engine information units. You could tap into your car's microprocessor and get some info out.

    Stuff like that would just be easier to do with Linux on the DS. It's all good.

    I'd buy a DS just to get Linux running on it. Now if I could only find the time to play with a project like that -- I already work too hard :-(

    --
    Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
  15. you are wrong. by Corngood · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It won't have even a tiny effect on sales. Look how few people use linux on the desktop, and you can quite easily install that without any hacking.

  16. good news for music makers by minikomi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If someone put the time and effort in, the touch screen and portability of this would make it a wonderful electronic instrument to perform with. How about wifi control of midi devices (with an external box converting info to midi) with a step sequencer controlled by the touch screen? or a DS based LSDJ like tracker? sample editing on the bottom screen, tracker on the top...